Here is how to get out of the difficult level 9 if you're playing the Atreides family. Use a
Hex editor to edit the SCENARIO.PAK file in the DUNE2 directory and do the
following:
Save the level 9 game.
Go to scenario 22 of the Atreides.
Go to [ATREIDES] and change credit to 30000 and Maxunit to 50
Go to [UNITS] and change all Atreides Siege tanks to Atreides Sonic tanks.
Go to [STRUCTURES] search for palaces of the Harkonnen and Sarduakars and
change them all to Ordod palaces.
Go to [REINFORCEMENTS] and change the Atreides tanks to Sonics.
Save the new SCENARIO.PAK file. Start the game and load the saved level 9
position.
Go to OPTIONS and RESTART SCENARIO.
You now have loads of credits at your disposal and all of your tanks have changed into
the more powerful Sonic variety. What's more the missile barrages should have
stopped making the chances of you surviving the level far higher.
Programming:
If you want to use/build more than 25 units use a Hex editor to edit the scenario.pak
file. Find a line containing:
Brain=Human
Maxunit=25
Credit=1500
and change the number after the Maxunit to 99
Hack:
This cheat involves editing one of the Dune2 files, so remember to back up before you
start fiddling around.
Edit the file scenario.pak with a text editor such as write for Windows(DO NOT USE
EDIT IN DOS! This damages the file when you save it so don't try it). This file contains
all sorts of useful information about each of the scenarios for the different houses.
There are 21 scenarios for the different houses and I believe they work as follows.
1 = First level - don't edit this as the game will probably crash
2,3 = Second Level
4,5,6 = Third level
7,8,9 = Fourth Level
10, 11, 12 = Fifth Level
13, 14, 15 = Sixth Level
16, 17, 18 = Seventh Level
19, 20 = Eigth Level
21 = Ninth Level
Under each level there is a map seed (do not change this unless you want to start in
the middle of some sand) and some info about the players. Find the scenario (or
scenarios) that is/are applicable to the level you are on and change the credits for the
human player to -1. Save the file and reload Dune2. Load your game, then restart the
level. This will give you 65535 credits, although it looks like you have -1 at the start (the
credits will go down to -32767 then flip to positive 32767). Play on and enjoy your
cash.
Remember that the file scenario.pak contains all the info about structures and units at
the start of the level, so have a fiddle and give yourself some better units. I haven't
worked out how to place units accurately on the map but from what I can tell, if you add
one to the last number of the unit or structure it moves one square to the right (for
structures the number represents the top left corner). I have discovered that overdoing
this hack can cause the game to crash when you try to restart the scenario, and
editing Level 1 just doesn't work at all, however you can still have some fun, and give
house-specific units (e.g. Devastator, Sonic Tank) to other houses (just remember that
no matter what affiliation a Deviator Tank may be, it still turns units to Ordos, which is
not very good for the game if there is no Ordos player. I don't know if it will crash or
not, as I have avoided doing this).